america, with a look ata, today's top stories. a town in south africa is preparing for nelson mandela's funeral. that's where the former pettigrew up. president obama will attend along with current and former leaders from more than 100 countries. is u.s. will airlift african forces and equipment to bengai. sectarian violence has engulfed the country since march. uu.s. airway the carriers completed their merger today, creating the world's largest airline. four airline now control 80% of flights in the united states.

lawmakers are back on capitol hill. congress has just a few days to vote on a laundry list of items including a new spending bill. the passage of this bill would help avoided another government shut down. a blast of severe weather causing big problems across the northeast is kevin just mentioned, power outages, car pileups and massive flight delays the national weather service is forecasting another storm for the, i 95 corridor from washington, d.c., to boston tomorrow. real money, with david shooter is next.

plus what you don't know about and this is real money. ♪ . >> this is real money, and you are the most important part of the show, so join our live conversation for the next half hour on twitter at a.j. real money. for the airline industry, and all who fly, this is a very big merger monday. tonight marked the official completion of american airlines megamerger with a. sir ways and it comes just as millions of passengers prepare for the normally busy holiday travel season. the new corporate combo keeps the american name, and creates the world's largest airline by market value. plus, there will be 100,000 employees going to more than 330

worldwide destinations. the deal, two years in the making the latist round began when they combined with american eagle, that was followed with delta and northwest in 2008, united and continental, and southwest in air tran in 2011. the latest merger now brings the number of major u.s. carriers flying the skies from seven a decade ago, to just four today. together, the four left take up an estimated 80%

inflation fairs in real terms dropped by almost 1%. what has changed over the years though is the number of fees passengers now pay in addition to air fairs. almost 9% over and above the base air fair, the record says that trend regarding fees is happening industry wide, and has little or nothing to do with airline consolidation. on twitter and facebook, we have been asking you, merged to create the world's largest airline, will this help consumers, rob says fewer flights and higher fairs not at all, but it does create opportunity for other airline if they are smart. nope, it only helps corporate profits by reducing or eliminating competition, heck of a job. tell us what you think at aj real money, or leave us a comment on facebook.

let's dig deeper into how this will effect you, the consumer. for nearly 15 years he worked as a marketing manager prior to that, henry is an analyst at the advisory firm, crossing and he joins us from san francisco, henry so this won't really take effect until january, and then a few months later, explain why? >> correct, so today the merger closed from a legal standpoint. january 7th is the date the airline has marked owhat they call customer day one that's when american airlines advantage will start to get benefits with one another and airport lounge access. after that, we will see improvements come around in april, and again in september. also march 31st is the someday that us airways will leave star alliance and become a one world member.

>> this is a simple question, and a lot of folks are asking, what is going to happen to air fairs. can we expect that air fairs will rise, because competition has dropped? >> well, the answer is a big it depends. first, factors like the price of jet fuel obviously are going to effect what airline charge. second the is state of the economy. if the economy remains strong, more demand less supply fairs will go up. but, american and u.s. airs have been reported by the justice department to give up seven teen pair of slots at la guardia airport in new york. those slots will be divided up right now between southwest and virgin america. the national airport, the justice department wants to see those slots go to low fairs too.

>> or is it simply because there are fewer airline that can say more for fees and that's that. >> they are as much of the aaron industry as wings are to an airplane. they are here, they are not going to go away, what we will see is a change in how airline sell them. american has offered different bundles. and obviously, if you are a more loyal customer, if you pay a business type of fair, or if you carry certain credit cards you may get exempted from those fees. >> henry heart of the industry, henry thank you for coming on, we appreciate it. >> sure. >> it took a merger to save american airlines, it took a government bail out to save general motors. today four years and nearly $50 billion later

the united states treasury says it sold it's final stake in g.m. in the end taxpayers ended up losing $10 billion. the company has earned $20 billion since leaving bankruptcy. this is a big week for wall street. five years after the crisis that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. regulators are about to take a major step to reign in how much risk banks can take. five agencies are voting tuesday on the so called vol kerr rule. it would stop banks that take deposits from people like you and me from trying to profit by trading stocks or other securities. the fight over the rule involves a long standing debate over what a modern bank should be allowed to do. ♪ . >> in 1933, to protect the public, from the financial abuses that caused the great depression. congress passed the glass eagle act. federally ensure and prevent banks from placing those at risk we

barring them from engaging in speculative. by 1999, was used as a ball and chain, shackling the the law was repealed. but when the 2008 financial crisis left taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in bank bail outs, the spirit of glassed eagle was reborn as the vol kerr rule. >> it is important, because we want to make sure we are protecting the deposits that are federally insured from risky behavior. we don't want to endanger those deposited. >> named after paul vol kerr, the former federal reserve chairman, the rule banned banks that take federally insured deposits from engaging in so called proprior tear trading. >> widely seen as the center piece of the wall street reform and consumer protection act, it has become contentious, because unlike glassed eagle it

does not ban all trading. >> banks can still trade securities or execute trades for their customers. and for years now, regulators have been rangeling with how to distinguish those ben nine trades from ones that can harm a bank. >> those who favor a tough interpretation, point to the $6 billion trading loss jpmorgan chase incurred in the london whales scandal. whether the rule changes the excesses only time will tell. patricia, al jazeera, new york. >> a man we are about to talk to says the financial crisis of 2008 had nothing to do with proprior tear trading by banks and he says the rule and the to be frank act will not do enough to address the real issues. compensation risk taking on wall street. bill cone, who worked on

wall street for 17 years and has written three best selling books. why wouldn't it at least change some of the behavior. >> because, david, it is going to fix something that wasn't broken. proprietary trading is not what caused the financial crisis. >> well, it didn't cause that crisis, but but it did cause the scandal to lose $6 billion. >> okay, i concede that point, and that is true, but the rule was brought up and designed two years before the london whale crisis or curred. and jpmorgan made mistakes in that situation, lost $6.2 billion but frankly, no one was bailed out. no one really lost any money to speak of. shareholders perhaps lost

some money, but now you are tarnishing all of wall street, and when it was just some bad actor. >> if the main issue is that people are taking risks with other people's moneys. in other words they don't have their own skin in the game, how do you change that? >> look, a little history lesson. all wall street firms were private partnerships. not just the capitol they put in, but everything they put in up to that point. after 1970 going public and then merrill lynch. and even more so, even more wall street firms you change add partnership culture into a bonus culture. any of their own money at risk. >> is it realistic to get back to that partnership

instead of the bonus culture we have today. >> it is now something like $100 billion market cap, no way you will put that genie back in the bottle. what kind of -- where capitol should be allocated who gets reported and fires, those people, once again, they have their full net worth on the line. and there are waying to do that in terms of creating a security, that is collateralized and making that the first thing that gets lost. >> chase tag dream is getting harder every day for people with a mortgage, kids and car payment. coming up, the income gap in america, who is falling into it and how to get out. and later you may be eligible for government money you didn't know you had coming. we are talking tens of thousands of dollars for the average family, a

report you cannot afford to mis, coming up, right here on real money.

world leaders are en route to honor nelson mandela. our own ali velshi is there to cover those events. official memorials began tuesday for mandela, who in 1994 election brought an end to ray par tide. soon after, exports rose and living conditions improved for millions, but the broing economy left behind huge parts of the south african population, and the most troubling trend involved income and equality. two divide between rich and poor has increased. two problem is particularly bad in predominately black communities like alexandar township, where mandela once lived. it underscores the challenges facing the largest economy.

here is ali valshi now with more. >> this is alexandra township, one of the townships surrounding johannesburg. it is where blacks had to live because they couldn't live in the city limits. a t a lot of the people that live here work nearby. that's the promise of the new south africa, those are single family homes built by the government as promised since the aend of apartheid, they have power, you can't see them that clearly, but they have water tanks the streets have electricity, they are paved, that's the promise, this is the unfulfilled prompt, so many of the people that live in these still live in shanties, look at these things with tin roofs, there are rats going through here, this area was built in 1912 to house 70,000 people, the estimated range widely but there might be up to three-quarters of a million people here, and by the way, we are less than a couple of miles from the richest part of

africa, where there are more millionaires than there are anywhere else on this continent. talk about a bifurcated economy, of have notes and haves. we are right in the middle of it right here. includes the united states, where household net worth is at a record high. but the divide between the haves and have not's is growing. bank rate.com release add new report showing america's income gap widening 10%. , if wores 35 to 44 years old, that rate jumped 21%, more than any other age group. chris, thank you for joining us. >> there are a lot of reasons for answering that. there are many things that are pushing the wealthy in one direction, and poor in another direction. the first thing you have to wreck please we looked at income in the last 20 years.

now, this has changed indread bly. you have to look at the jobs overseas. a lot of folk folks in the services sector had to find other forms of employment, has to get lower pray, fewer hours happen that was one big issue. we have had a million or so immigrants come here every year. so we are having an influx of lower wage earners. but you can't talk about income, without talking about stagnant wages. is stagnant medium incomes we are seeing. >> . >> and that's a drag on economy, if the people at the lower end, don't have money they can spend on small businesses. >> yes, exactly. that's a circumstance lat effect that is happening. a lot of folks tend to stay in the same place. if they are on the lower end they tend to stay on that lower end. >> what should the gov do about it? >> this many things.

the president talked about obama-care, is his signature measure. be uh there's many other things we talk about every national election we have, these things come up. things like universal prek, unemployment benefits, ebbing panning those. >> expanding the social safety nets so people at the lower end have more, what about people at the top that have gotten much of the wealth? should we be taxing them more? >> that's a very important part. now if you look at estate taxes over the last ten years it has been on the decline. because the government has allowed wealthy government to pass more and more of their income on to their children and grandchildren. so that's a big issue. a lot of people in the top 10 of 1%, her not getting a paycheck, a lot of them are getting from investment returns. one thing about that is

capitol gains taxes, taxed at a lower rate. and also if you look at wall street, and what's happening, in the dough jones and the s&p 500, you will see a lot of those returns are doing incredibly well. >> is there one thing that people at the middle income, or low income levels can do to dig themselves out? >> that's a great question. we focus on the individual, the one thing we really believe is that individuals have a tremendous power, to change their financial futures. if they just follow certain steps. everyone has a different story, things like living within their means. things that are much easier said than done, a lot of folks when there's a wide income gap, they will do a lot of things that they probably shouldn't. take out that second mortgage, put the pool in the backyard when you can't afford it. buy the bigger home when you can't afford it. there are so many things you can do for a specific individual, i suggest going to places like bank rate.com, where we have a lot of advisors, analyst,

ways to help people. >> chris kahn from bank rate.com, thank you for coming in. >> it is like leaving money on the table, middle class americans missing out on tens of millions of dollars worth of social security for things like child care and child tuition, how your family can cut down your costs, that's coming up on real money. >> people who had no hope now tell their extraordinary stories. >> i thought i was gonna die... on america tonight on al jazeera america

event can change your one life, but what if that event is losing your home. the rise in family homelessness, it is growing and effecting some one point since million kids. the reality for these families and we are asking you the right approach is being taken to address the issue. that's the stream up next, right after real money. >> about 50 million americans receive social security benefits collecting an average of 1,200-dollar as month, and half of us get half

of our retiement income from social security. but according to some experts the average family leaves more than 100 went thousand dollars on the table over a lifetime when it comes to claiming benefits. that's largely because the rules are hard for even seasoned professionals to understand. but our own stacy tisdale now understands them, and reports on the hidden benefits. >> judith anderson sought advice on how to maximize her social security benefits. >> i thought when you decided to retire that you called them up, and said i want to start drawing down on my social security. >> jute did found out she could draw down much more, by claiming additional benefits to help pay with their daughter's college education. >> she is getting around one huh thousand dollars a month. they are staking advantage of a little known rule. as long as one parent, is

62 or older, the couple can claim an additional benefit for every child under the age of 18. if the parent qualifies for 2,000-dollar as month, the child will get 1,000. and the money the child gets does not reduce the amount the parent receives. >> that is something that is increasingly important, as people are having children later in life. >> another little known benefit paid your spouse for taking care of your children. to claim the care giver benefit one parent has to be 62 or older, and the child has to be under the age of 16. your spouse, no matter how old, can get an additional payment that is half the size of yours. you get 1,000-dollar as month, he or she gets 500. the money the care giving response receives does not reduce the amount of your payment. that's 180% of what you and your spouse get combined. if your base is

1,000-dollar as month, the total amount your family received cannot exceed 1,800. you can delay receiving your benefits to avoided bumping up against those limits. >> may want to have the higher earning spouse defer benefits as long as possible. >> kathryn and matthew allen help people get the most out of social security. >> there are. s out there that don't know how to maximize their social security benefits. it is so complicated that they couldn't do it on their own. >> another benefit clients are surprised to find out about is the divorce benefit. to qualify, you and your ex-spouse must be believe 62 years old. and your marriage, must have lasted for ten years the divorce has to be at least two years old. if your ex's benefit is higher than yours you can claim half of that amount. but, you give up your own benefit. and if you tie the knot, all bets are off.

>> the social security administration, they do a great job in general, but they are not going to proactively reach out to you and say you are eligible for this, this, and this. >> there are more than 2,700 rules in this social security handbook, even the most seasoned financial professionals have a hard time understanding them. experts say use websites like the social security administrations or the aarp to find out exactly what you qualify for, because for most americans, ignorant is something we simply can't afford. >> i am looking forward to kicking back, and enjoying the benefits of working hard all my life. >> enjoying money, she made the old fashioned way. she earned it. >> stacy tisdale, new york. >> social security administration says the fund can keep making payments at the current rate until 2033, after that analysts say the options include cutting benefits raising taxes

and raising the age of retirement. of course, none of those are popular for most politicians. finally, in our nation's capitol, there are multiple reports that house and senate negotiators are moving closer to what would be the first successful budget agreement. the deal would not reduce the debt, which is now $17.3 trillion raising. it would not close corporate tax loopholes. instead, the emerging agreement amounts to a cease fire. key republicans and democrats are apparently abandoning their debt reduction efforts and it looks like they are at least trying to avoided another stand off that damages the economy. amen. you see according to the experts the u.s. debt levels are not going to sink our economy. plus, the annual deficit is dropping fast. according to the congressional budget office. in the fiscal year, the deficit as a percentage

of g.d.p. dropped by 37%. there are still some challenges for the u.s. economy. but the current -- if the only thing congress does right now is to get out of the way, that itself would be progress. and that's our show for today on tuesday, the winners and losers in wall street annual bonus sweep stakes, in for ali valshi, thank you for joining us.

homeowners, one minute home he is. what is going on. talk rabbiting numbers we have more homeless school age kids in america than ever before. >> right. >> so we have to have a whole new conversation about american